Title: Fall of Night

Author: Rachel Caine

Series: Morganville Vampires #14

Genre: YA Paranormal

Rating: 4/5 stars

The Overview: Thanks to its unique combination of human and vampire residents, Morganville, Texas, is a small college town with big-time problems. When student Claire Danvers gets the chance to experience life on the outside, she takes it. But Morganville isn’t the only town with vampire trouble… Claire never thought she’d leave Morganville, but when she gets accepted into the graduate program at MIT, she can’t pass up the opportunity. Saying goodbye to her friends is bittersweet, especially since things are still raw and unsettled between Claire and her boyfriend, Shane. Her new life at MIT is scary and exciting, but Morganville is never really far from Claire’s mind. Enrolled in a special advanced study program with Professor Irene Anderson, a former Morganville native, Claire is able to work on her machine, which is designed to cancel the mental abilities of vampires. But when she begins testing her machine on live subjects, things quickly spiral out of control, and Claire starts to wonder whether leaving Morganville was the last mistake she’ll ever make. –Goodreads

The Review:

It has been at least six years since I picked up the previous book in this series. I was worried about going into the penultimate book without clear memory of past events. But as it happens, this was kind of a reset book after the end of an arc, so I went in with a relatively clean slate and enough memory of all the key players to pick up as if I’d never left off. Awesome – one of the few times my scattered reading didn’t cost me.

Fall of Night offered a reset of sorts to the series as we’ve known it, and I appreciated the introduction of a few new characters (one of which I wish we’d seen earlier in the series – I liked her that much). It also amped up the stakes (ha) decently for what’s going to be the final book. Although I will say the villain seemed a bit out of left field (as if I’d remember if they were mentioned previously, anyway), but there was lots of action, excitement, and a few hair-raising moments. Legit – it triggered a fear response from me, which is something I wasn’t expecting or braced for from a YA.

The objectives in the second half of the book all hinged on a single point that I found incredibly debatable on it’s plausibility… but I guess how else are we supposed to get from point A to point B? But for the record I didn’t find it believable in the slightest. Also, there’s a new technology of sorts in this book that is so hilariously under-developed that the characters may as well be walking around pointing sticks at each other for how poorly the mechanics have been described. Basically, there’s a thing that does a thing and the characters involved are smart enough to know how it works… we mere peons don’t need an explanation. Our motto: Just go with it!

In contrast to that though, you know how some fantasy books read a lot like YA even though they have very adult themes? There’s something about the character work and delivery that resonates with long-time YA readers that transcends genre labels. As it happens, this book read to me more like an adult urban fantasy than a YA, despite the themes. It has been many years since I read the bulk of this series, so there’s a chance that not all the books read similarly, [Edit: after I wrote this I investigated my review of #13 back in 2020 and was mostly ranting about the toxic relationships, teen angst, and not much else driving the plot at that point, so maybe #14 is just special], but for this book, it seemed to have levelled up… well, with the exception of a character named Eve. I’ve long thought her profile and dialogue were majorly overdone and immature. But the rest of it benefitted from Caine’s forays into the many adult genre books (not “adult” in that sense… you know what I mean) she’s written (the Weather Warden series was particularly fun) and felt just a little more robust. It’s also worth noting that we might finally be past the point in the series where teen angst is the driving point of the plot (mostly), so I’m sure that helps as well. Regardless, this might be a fun set to pick up for someone craving those nostalgic YA paranormal vibes but wants something more palatable to slightly older tastes.

Most of the books in this series are good, but I don’t endorse it often because the love interest and the relationships in general have always struck me as a bit toxic. Obviously it didn’t keep me from more or less enjoying the entire series so far, but I feel it’s worth mentioning. Even so, this particular volume was a great installment, and I’m excited to finally see how the series ends!

Thank you to my Patrons: Dave, Katrin, Frank, Jen, Karen, Sonja, Staci, Kat, Betsy, Eliss, Mike, Elizabeth, Bee, Poochtee, Kinsey, Alysa, Derek, Kelly, Grace, Carmen, Leticia, and Leah! <3

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